Many people capture images to create mementos or photo albums and to use those images as a gift for family and friends or as a means to archive their memories. Photo albums and photo books in particular are used to present images captured of an event in a pictorial narrative. Documents such as photo albums and photo books have become very powerful presentation media for sharing memories with other people.
The advent of digital photography has dramatically altered image capturing behaviour. For example, features such as instant preview are now possible. Further, the massive storage size of digital media makes it possible for a particular person to capture a nearly limitless number of images. As a result, image capturing has now become primarily about ensuring that an event is captured faithfully and sufficiently.
However, the increase in the number of captured images has increased the time spent filtering “good” images from “bad” images in order to ultimately select the best images for archival or sharing in a final presentation form. Hence, there is a clear distinction between the image capture stage and the presentation medium creation and presentation stage.
Without a view of a final presentation medium a user often lacks the context of where each captured image will be used in the final presentation medium (e.g., a photo book or photo album). In the example of a photo book, specific issues such as layout will depend on the images available to the user. The user may modify the layout of the photo book to suit the images. However, it will usually not be possible for the user to re-capture images once the images are in the photo book creation stage. In some cases, the user may find that they do not have sufficient images to fill a photo book. In other cases, the user may find that they do not have the right images to sufficiently present a good narrative or the narrative the user had in mind. Such cases may lead to the user feeling dissatisfied with their completed photo book.
Some known image capture devices provide assistance during the image capture stage to ensure that the user captures good quality images. One such device performs scene analysis of a current scene being viewed through the viewfinder. The device may also perform scene analysis on the captured image. Some of these known devices also use image processing algorithms to determine the quality of an image and translate this information to direct the user on how to achieve an optimal result by changing the appropriate settings on the device. Others of these devices send a request, over a wireless network, for real-time feedback on an image captured by a remote third party user. The disadvantage of the methods used by the above devices is that typically the quality analysis is performed only on pixel data and/or metadata for a captured image.
In one known method, an analysis is performed on a collection of images to determine a presentation format for the images. This known method uses a number of algorithms which may analyse and compare a number of different image parameters (e.g. colour ratio, texture, geo-location, capture time, etc.) to determine a set of relationships between the images. The determined relationships may then be grouped into story elements or “themes” which are utilised to assist in the presentation format of a final presentation medium (e.g. photo book). Determining a presentation format for the images can produce more aesthetically pleasing results with the available images. However, there still may be problems where there are insufficient images to complete a photo book or to convey a narrative.
Another increasing trend amongst users is collaborating in the capturing of images and in the creation of memorabilia. With each participant in such a collaboration having potentially different cameras with different capabilities and also different approaches to image capture, the result of the collaboration often produces a result that appears inconsistent in terms of layout. For example, a user may choose to compensate for low light by increasing an ISO setting of a camera, while another user may choose to use an in-built flash. In another example, users may choose different white balance settings on each of the cameras that they are using in a collaboration. In such scenarios, a viewer of the images can generally determine that the images have been captured from different devices. One of the disadvantages of collaboration is that often photos from a particular scene appear to originate from different events. Further, without some direction provided for a collaboration group often events are not sufficiently covered.